Conventionally, there have been offered ink jet recording apparatuses that jet ink onto a recording medium such as a paper sheet or a plastic thin plate to record a certain image, and those apparatuses have been put into practical use. Particularly in recent years, to enable image recording even on a non-absorbent recording medium, ink jet recording apparatuses have been developed which form an image by using a photocurable ink and emitting light such as UV-ray to the ink having landed on the recording medium. As an example of such ink jet recording apparatuses, there have been developed apparatuses which use a radical polymerization ink and emit a large amount of UV-rays at a time (for example, see Patent Document 1). There have also been offered ink jet recording apparatuses which use transparent ink and record an image for evenness in luster (for example, see Patent Document 2).
[Patent Document 1] TOKKAI No. 2001-310454
[Patent Document 2] TOKKAI No. 2003-191601
The above ink jet recording apparatuses mix a plurality of different color inks on a recording medium, and then cure the inks by emitting UV-rays to record an image. However, when a dot of a white ink or a black ink, for example, is formed on or in the vicinity of a dot of mixed color inks, for example, a cyan, magenta, and yellow ink, the white or black ink is mixed with the color inks and bleeds, resulting in image degradation.
On the other hand, even with an ink jet recording apparatus using a transparent ink, the transparent ink is mixed with another ink before all inks are cured on a recording medium, resulting in image degradation.